The Ray Of Hope, The Blade Of Shadows, And The Fox VS The Undead
by WhenTheLightCalls
Summary: After the final battle between Kaguya and team 7, they were able to seal her away. But her anger boiled over and decided to send her own kin away from their dimension to another one with her portals. Now Naruto, Sasuke, and Kurama are separated and alone. How will they survive in a world were other people eat each other? Will they lead the fight or become the undead?
1. Chapter 1: The Fox And The Girl

Chapter 1: The Fox And The Girl

Please read the update!

Rating: K+

Warning: Possibly gorish (the walking dead plus shinobi… think about it for a sec), violence, weakened OP characters, new character development.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the walking dead nor Naruto sadly.

Update: Heya everyone, I'm back. I know it's been forever but let's just say life happened and I was just so overwhelmed that I didn't keep writing. I'll leave it at that. With this update comes a cleaner chapter 1 with a bunch of mistakes being erased. But I'm back and with my return I want to do things differently. To get back in the groove of things I'm editing almost every chapter I've released over all my stories then I'm going to focus on one at a time so that everyone can have a decent amount of time pass between new chapters of one story. For now this is the story I want to focus on. It'll be at least 15 chapters long before it ends so y'all will have a decent story ahead of you. Next up… is up to you. Choose from the multiple different stories I've put up and leave in a review or comment which story you want focused on next. Alright now enjoy the fresh chapter and look out for the new releases.

Poll for which story I should work on next:

A Different Deku

The Way Of The Hero And Ninja

A Different Time-line

The Neo Spider-man

The Will Of The Force

Notes: Hi there people of the interwebs, WhenTheLightCalls here, welcome to my first of many stories of the future, however, this story is a bit different and alot more special than normal. I adopted this story from a fantastic author known as FlightOrFight, who hadn't been able to finish the story. After reading his story again after 3 years had passed, I really wanted to see the story continue. So I PMed the incredible author behind this and I asked if I could adopt the story and help continue the story. Thankfully he agreed and has allowed me to do so, he gets full credit for this story, go and look him up and read the rest of his cool stories, they don't disappoint. Thanks again! So... yeah to those reading this, to answer the question if I'm changing the story at all or not, yes and no. Yes because I'm gonna edit a few things here and there and add new chapters to continue the plot, but no the plot itself should stay the same for the most part. Btw, this story was born thanks to FlightOrFlight and his story, the predecessor to mine, and it was created thanks to A Fic called 'A single flame in a dying world' written by FelixEcho, the grandfather of my story. An amazing fic that's for sure, look it up and give it a read. Check out FelixEcho's and FlightOrFight's story and go follow them, they are amazing. Now, onto the story!

Kaguya's Dimension

Kurama has been inside a jinchuriki for so long, he can't recall with clarity how it feels to be free. That's why he forces himself to not forget each time he achieved freedom, as few as those times were. The main emotion in each occasion was different, accompanied with others, but the feeling has always been overwhelming and the same every time. Except the last one.

He remembers the first time, when Mito was too old and her body couldn't take more of his chakra. It only lasted a couple of minutes, the transition between his former jinchuuriki and the new one, but he was able to taste the air, watch the light through his own sharper senses and no longer through a human's. The process made it difficult, with the seal preventing so much from getting through even if he was struggling. But it was enough for him to feel something almost forein to him, joy. Then he was inside another body and the anger; the deep, dark hatred returned.

Kurama's tails were impaled and his body wrapped and completely immobilized by the chakra chains of his new jinchuuriki. Even though others may scoff because he's made of pure chakra and thus should not feel the pain—well, it still hurts. Her chakra, Kushina's chakra, was impaling and constricting his own. She didn't let him watch through her eyes, hear through her ears. Everything was muted except a few glimpses he was barely able to catch every now and then.

It wasn't until he felt Naruto forming inside her that he realized how long had it really passed. It made him hopeful, another foreign feeling to him. He knew the seal weakened when one gave birth and unlike with Mito, he knew for a fact that few seal masters remained. Uzushiogakure was destroyed, along with most other Uzumaki seal masters. There wasn't a Mito to guide the novices of the Hidden Leaf Village. So, that gave him his second chance to free himself.

He doesn't remember much of that time. All he remembers was that man's sharingan. He remembers very little after he was freed, after she gave birth. Well that was to be expected, he was being controlled, after all.

But, like the first time, before he went on a rampage, he remembers the feeling of air through his fur. The chakra of nature around him. The light of the pale full moon shining off his fur. It was overpowering, even to the point where there was dizziness and some sort of numbness.

Even with the freedom he felt as his paws touched the earth was exhilarating, his deep seated hatred was there, and the Uchiha used it to its full extent. 'Freedom!' his mind screamed, with no true memory of what happened that night.

The third time, was in the middle of war and with his brethren next to him, chains around his neck. Even though it was through a chakra avatar, the sense of freedom he felt at not being inside a human, even if he respected the brat, was still there. More faint, laced with determination and faith, but still there. Even as he was dragged into the Ten Tails husk. He had a plan with Shukaku's former jinchuuriki. Naruto promised them all would be freed, so he didn't worry.

So why, he now wonders if he felt the lightness of freedom in previous times, in different measures and next to other emotions… why he doesn't feel the same now.

He doesn't feel any of it as he's ripped out of the seal, pulled away from Naruto. There's desperation, instead. Desperation, fear, and grief as his chakra is forcefully pulled out of Naruto. 'Stop! It'll kill him!' Kurama thought in horror as he watched his... friend, yes that's right, friend wretch in pain from the painful extraction.

Freedom doesn't matter anymore. Naruto is being pulled away even as Kurama extends his arms forwards. But he's weak. The seal was deteriorating quickly. He can't reach him in time.

Naruto is looking at the sharingan brat as he also flies away through the portal, but finally seems to notice something's missing, Kurama's chakra.

He turns towards him and looks at him with a panicked look as pain twists his features. He also starts to extend his hand towards him but he stops midway and chokes. Everything moves slowly as the blood that came from his mouth trails in the air, suspended. He knows Naruto won't survive the extraction.

He almost died the first time. There's no Gaara to catch him. No Sakura to heal him or comrades to protect him. Not here and certainly not now. Naruto will die and… And Kurama is not going to let that happen.

The seal is open and almost completely shattered but there's still a link between the two partners. It's slowly fading but still there. He pushes as much of his chakra as he can into Naruto's body, hoping the energy left by his old man is enough to help Naruto survive. The power that seems to have maintained them together, now looks ready to snap them away. Kurama can see the energy strung tight and by Naruto's face, he guesses he can feel it, too.

"I'll kill you if you die, you brat! I'll find you!" he shouts as the power releases him, sending him flying deeper into the portal. Even though he was launched at a neck breaking speed, for a second, he sees it. The smile the brat gives out only to those close to him. The smile was a farewell that clearly says 'everything will be alright, believe it!' It's bloody and weak, but still filled with the usual determination and will.

Kurama tries to grin back, even as he's being flung away into god knows where. The portal Kaguya opened to get them once and for all before being sealed away is closing. It only managed to affect the three beings closest to her. They sealed her, and with his siblings and Naruto's friends being there, it's going to be okay. He trusts Naruto with his life. If he promises he'll be fine, then he will.

However, the fear and sadness of being parted was still there. It doesn't leave. He's worried and that annoys him, alot. He manages a wide smirk as they are completely sucked through the portal.

Somewhere, In a Dense Forest

"I'm so glad I'm a being made up of pure chakra," Kurama mumbles, watching the upside down tip of the one tail that managed to come unscathed from the whole ordeal.

After crashing into several trees with his body, he landed with his ass literally on his face. He has tried using his tails as a way to lessen the impact, and it worked, for the first couple of trees. Not so much after the fourth and fifth.

Now he's sore and so fucking tired he could sleep for a couple of months to gather his strenght. But there was no time for that, he needed to find Naruto.

Suddenly, there was a rustle of leaves coming from his left that makes his ears twitch, which makes him focus on what was coming his way. Huh, he could hear growling along with scraping and dragging sounds.

'Humans? A wild animal? No… the smells are not right.' He flips his body until his paws rest against the ground and slowly goes into a low stance, prepared to attack. And just that action hurts his entire body. He wonders how that's possible, he doesn't even have a body.

From what he has learned of Kaguya's ability, he's most likely in another dimension. The plants look familiar and the smell of the atmosphere is almost the same, with however it being thicker and harder to breath.

He's glad they didn't end in one of those previous dimensions with the drastic temperatures. He's sure he'd survive easily, but Naruto needs food and water. This dimension is similar enough for it to provide what a human needs to survive. Or at least that's what he hopes.

The thing making the noise finally comes through the bushes and… well he was kinda right about it being human, accept… it's a rotten human torso crawling towards him. Okay, perhaps this dimension is not as similar as his own.

He sniffs the air again to get its scent and... oh, that half human look-alike is completely dead. The smell of death reeked profusely, and this made his nose wrinkle up in disgust. Its brain seems to be working though, if that can be considered 'working' of course.

Kurama takes a step forward to kill this threat before stopping mid-action. Either this dimension has bigger trees and creatures than him, or his size has been reduced. Dramatically.

Damn. Perhaps he has given Naruto a bit too much. Well, a sacrifice of power to make sure that idiot lived was still worth it. Kurama watches as the being seems lost for a moment, moaning and groaning, looking aimlessly around. Interesting.

Kicking a rock towards some bushes, Kurama watches as the attention of the being snaps to that direction. So it reacts to sound then. And it seemed, whatever the thing is, almost completely ignored him. Was it because it doesn't hunt animals? Maybe because he was a being of pure energy and its only interest is in actual flesh? Or… was it because he was so weak that he was barely alive to that… thing.

He doesn't know if the smell affects them as the thing doesn't smell anything like a hound. Hell for all he knows this thing is blind, which would make sneaking away from this guy even easier. But he has been inside the hidden village leaf for so long, stealth is something easy to achieve even without the target being blind.

The noise he made thanks to his fall may have led that thing here, with maybe even more on the way, which will cause him problems with being this weak. He definitely needs to leave, now.

He's at the lowest reserves of his chakra and doesn't know how strong they are. They don't seem to be too tough but he's not going to risk it. His body feels ready to fall apart; to become one with nature. He really needs to rest.

Because the truth is that he aches all over, weird considering he's pure energy with a conscience and a personality. He has never been truly defeated to the point he has needed to be reformed, but he guesses this must be what chakra exhausted shinobi felt. His chakra is unstable, as if the briefest moment without concentration is enough to make him disappear into his natural surroundings and force him into hibernation.

But that will probably take years, years he could not afford. He's quite fond of that blond brat, even if he loathes to admit it. One other reason is that he's a magnet for trouble. Kurama needs to find him before he screws up in a number of ways. Like if he pisses off the wrong guy, gets himself killed, or befriends some enemy's he shouldn't. He barely has weeks before Naruto puts his mark on this world.

Reaching out, Kurama concentrates all of his loose chakra in the air and compresses it closer to himself to avoid it from leaking out anymore than necessary, the effect being that Kurama shrinks even more. His body's no longer the height of a medium horse, but that of a large sized dog. This is the only thing he can do to conserve energy until he recovers without sleeping.

He takes a deep and unnecessary breath before launching himself at the crawling monster, biting into its neck and separating its head from the shoulders with a big gush of blood.

Kurama, feeling almost like he was gonna collapse from doing that alone, drops the severed head and walks off in the opposite direction to use the last of his energy to search for a place where he can rest long enough to not end up unconscious on the grass, especially not with monsters like the one he saw crawling walking around. Maybe a cavern or an abandoned house would do. He just needed time to be on his side.

Further In The Woods

About ten minutes later, he found nothing that could serve as a hideout to rest and he's so tired that he doesn't want to walk anymore.

He's seen more of those walking dead beings but has been able to avoid them to save energy. Kurama was way too tired to fight. However, he's now afraid he'll slip up and succumb to sleep.

He feels a weight settle onto his body, carrying him down and he can't fight it anymore. He needs to sleep at least for an entire day, possibly two, to gain a fair amount of energy back. Either that or he goes straight into hibernation, which was not an option.

He stops to catch his breath as he looks up and around to try to find something, anything that could help. As he looks around he sees out of the corner of his eye an old and grand tree with thick branches and foliage. That could work, he should have enough chakra to get up there.

Gathering the little he had, he jumped up into the giant tree and landed on one of its branches. As soon as he did this, he collapsed on the branch closing his eyes slowly, he just needed some rest. 'Naruto, you better still be... alive... you...brat.' Kurama's eyes completely shut as he drifted into unconsciousness.

Hours Later, The Giant Oak Tree

A sudden and loud bang is what wakes him up. He awoke groggily at first, until he finally registered the banging sounds ringing out in the forest. Now mind is alert and in search of danger thanks to the loud ringing noises.

At first he looked down to see if his position had been compromised and to his relief, it's not. There was no one or any of those things near the tree, but he can still hear some groans and growling nearby.

Naruto had once told him how lucky he was that Kurama can feel presences, that way he can always warn him whenever an enemy is near. Though no matter how many times he has explained that what he feels are emotions and not the actual presence of humans, as how a tracker can, Naruto never gets it. He grins, that annoying and carefree grin and says 'but we all have emotions'.

Well, for one, those beings emanating the odor of death don't have emotions. He's able to smell them faintly, meaning they're probably far from his position but he doesn't know their exact position.

He sighs, it's easier to detect emotions than using his nose to- Kurama suddenly turns his head to where the sounds are coming from, and they're getting closer to his tree. There's a yell among those grunts, a high pitched and terrified yell. And now that he is concentrating, he can sense some emotions. There's fright, despair and hopelessness there.

It is not his intention to come down from his tree to investigate, his body is still in complete pain and one look at the sky makes him know it hasn't been that long since he has fallen asleep; give it or take a few hours.

But as sounds get closer he jumps onto another branch, going out further just in time to see a young girl with dark blond hair and light blue eyes trying to get away from those things. She's moving slowly, her breaths are heavy and there's a stuffed doll on the crook of her arm while the other holds some metal object which she tries to hold with her right hand. She wore a light blue t-shirt with a rainbow on it and blue jeans with white sneakers.

She aims at one of those things near her and the loud 'bang' is there again, echoing loudly in the forest. Her shoulders sag with the force of the weapon and it escapes her hands along with the doll. She whimpers and looks at the side to see more of those beings behind her.

Kurama sees her blue eyes and they are the wrong shade, her hair the wrong shade as well, but he senses a familiar determination and bravery. They're laced with fear and hopelessness instead of stubbornness and faith—in himself, in his comrades, in Kurama—, but it's similar enough for him to jump off his tree and run towards the little girl.

He no longer sees the young girl who had tears staining her cheeks as she fell in fear, now trying to crawl away from the monsters surrounding her; he sees a young Naruto crying. Instead of monsters, naruto's surrounded by the villagers of the leaf, all looking upon him with hateful, fear filled eyes. And he feels guilty.

Kurama attacks. He doesn't have the energy for chakra attacks, and definitely doesn't have the energy for a Tailed Beast Bomb, but he can still fight without them.

He uses his sharp claws and teeth to rip through the monsters. He went through so many of them that he was covered with coagulated blood and pieces of skin. He mostly ripped their heads off, because for the most part, he doesn't know how to kill these things.

Well until he knocked the next one down and stabbed down into its head with his right paws claws. It stopped moving completely as Kurama sighed in relief, it seemed that destroying the brain was the way to kill them. Beats ripping the heads off of those things.

He hobbles off the walker as he then turns towards the wide eyes directed at him. They're blue and that's enough for him to use what little energy he has to move forward and fall in front of the trembling human, close to her thin legs.

"Let me sleep for a while now, brat," he murmurs before falling asleep. He was putting his trust towards this human girl. And he hopes it wasn't misplaced.

5 Hours Later, Abandoned House

The thing about waking up when one's gotten used to being inside another being is that… well, it's strange, period. Not in the sense of it being uncomfortable, though it kind of is. He has been sealed for almost a century. Never waking up to feel the real world around him. Most would think it'd be incredible. It's not. It's disconcerting.

Perhaps it feels like that because Naruto's chakra and his own had been so close that they've almost merged in the war. And even if it only lasted a couple of days, he's now used to the feeling of Naruto's calm chakra mixed to his own. The seal wasn't open for long but it has been long enough for him to get used to it. Heavy and powerful, sometimes too excited and full of many emotions, but always calm and protective. Reassuring in the way a warm coat would help when it's cold. Kurama would never admit it out loud though.

In short, even if waking up without that feeling in a place he doesn't recognize with the scent of blood and dust thick in the air shouldn't be enough to leave him aghast, it still leaves a sense of discomfort. He hasn't got the chance to really think of the abrupt change he experienced when leaving his jinchuriki. Not giving him time to adjust. So… that gives him a good reason to momentarily freak out right?

It's not befitting of the most powerful of the tailed beasts, but there's no one to see him as he slowly stands up only to fall back down. He looks down to see his paws are covered with some cloth, tied to his legs by thin rope. They seemed to work like shoes.

He reaches down to pull the cloth off his paws but that's when he realized that something was tied around his snout that makes him unable to open his mouth. And he can't reach up and pull it off with his paws because of the stupid shoes. Just peachy. It was embarrassing really.

"You're up," a voice murmurs, surprise echoing in the soft voice. Kurama looks up. The girl he remembers helping, thanks to her similarities with a younger Naruto, is standing behind a door frame and looking cautiously at him. And now that he looks at her this close, he can notice that the similarities he found between her and his host are almost nonexistent. He sighs. Yeah, he's losing it.

Looking down at the cloth tied with simple rope laces around his ankles and the fact he can't sense no one near (Well, no one alive), he assumes the girl is the one who tied them on him. It may be because of how his previous hosts treated him, but it doesn't affect him as it once would. They're easy to ignore.

He knows he should demand to be set free of these contraptions, but he has seen Naruto interact with enough kids to know that doing that will most likely scare her and then what will he do? He doesn't have the power to reduce them to ashes. At least not yet, if the soreness and lethargy he feels are something to go by. And he didn't have the strength to rip them off his person. He hates this.

"What's your name?" he starts, trying to not put too much gruff in his voice to make it less menacing. It doesn't help that it's hard to speak with tight cloth being wrapped around his snout.

Considering that she hides behind the wall, it doesn't work. Heavy breathing echoes in the house and Kurama decides to use the time to assess his surroundings while waiting for the girl to calm down from her shock.

The room where he's in is a lot taller than what he has seen before in buildings of the Elemental Nation. He assumes that the beings in this world are taller than in his then. That would probably piss Naruto off as he has always leaned to the shorter side. Heh, the imagined sight itself brings out a small chuckle to Kurama.

There's a thick layer of dust on everything and it looks as if whoever lived here escaped hastily, only grabbing the essentials. That by itself says much about the situation this world lives in. Considering the 'things' that he has seen he can guess the cause easily enough.

"You can talk?" Kurama directs his gaze to the girl peeking from the door frame. "I just did, didn't I?" Kurama retorts. She bites her lip nervously. "I thought it was my imagination to be honest."

That means that there aren't any talking animals in this world. That would mean he'd have to be silent from now on. It's not wise to attract attention to himself, plus, he really didn't need humans freezing up from shock every time he spoke. "My name's Sophia." Half of her body is now visible and Kurama senses her fear withdrawing, giving away to curiosity. Kids have always been more curious than anything else. "I'm—"

Kurama blinks. He has never introduced himself to anyone but Naruto before. And after they teamed up, the one introducing him as his partner and a member of Konoha was Naruto. Kurama doesn't like how his name was easily given to others by Naruto. But he would always respond saying 'If they are trusting you with their lives, trust them with your name' and that was it.

He let him do so but he's never had to give it out his name. And he won't. Not to a kid who he doesn't know. Maybe if he trusted her… it was slim, but maybe.

"Call me Nine," he finally answers. "So, you were the one who put these… shoes on me?" After receiving a nod he asks, "Why?" Sophia looked away kinda before answering. "You, um, bit the walkers. I thought maybe you were infected. You only need to be bitten or scratched by them to get infected. I don't know if it works like that with animals as well but I didn't want to chance it."

The kid's smart, he'll give her that. "Ok then. But there's something else I need to know; they're infected? What are they?" Kurama questioned further, with Sophia looking onto him with a shocked expression. "You don't know?" She asked, surprised that he didn't know. Everyone knew, well maybe some animals didn't know what it was, is that why he doesn't know?

"I'm not from here." Kurama answered blankly, staring up at her. "Uh?" She tilted her head in a cute way that Kurama sighed at before explaining. "Lets just say i got sucked outta my world through a portal into your world. And it was only a little while before I saved you. So now can you explain to me what they are?" Sophia just stared at him for a minute contemplating what he just told her, then she slowly started to explain to him

"Uhm, well, it starts when one of them bites you and then you'll get really sick until you eventually… die. Then you come back as one of them." She hesitates but it only takes her a second for her to walk forward until he can see her entirely. "I was with my mom and dad when they appeared a couple of months ago. We were with a group of others, and we stayed in a camp for a little while but the walkers attacked us and one of them... killed my dad. We left to find some place better but I got separated from everyone and now I'm…"

She bites her lower lip and blinks quickly but she doesn't continue. He hasn't interacted with many humans and the only one he can call friend is the kind of person that bounces from back from sadness to happy determination with Kurama just asking him

'Are you going to give up then?' in a mocking tone. Somehow he doesn't think it'll work with her. It's not as if he cares either way , so why bother?

"Walkers? Is that what you call them?" Kurama questioned as she nodded her head slightly. Well, it was an accurate name to say the least.

"Now that we've concluded that I'm not infected, mind if you give me a hand here? This thing is really annoying." He points at his snout with a paw and that makes her giggle kinda. She walks towards him nervously and gets on her knees, it only takes her a few moments to free him from his bindings.

"I didn't know foxes could be this big." Sophia exclaims softly as he scoffs. "I was bigger. You probably are about the same height as the pupil of my eye." Sophia looks over his body slightly with a slight wide eyed look before looking back at him. "Really? Then what happened to your body? Why are you so much smaller?" Kurama smirked slightly as he looked down. "An idiotic friend is what happened."

She looks at him with a questioning gaze. Though she didn't question the subject further, she still had more questions bottled up inside. "Are you really from another world?" The young girl asked with a newfound curiosity in her eyes. "Are you an alien then? From outer space?"

An alien? Kurama chuckled silently at the question. Ironically the Ten Tails was a combination of the chakra fruit and Kaguya Otsutsuki, who was an alien, and he was created from a split part of the Ten Tails soul. Hell his own father, the man who created the Tailed Beasts, was half alien and human. So technically she wasn't wrong to assume so. "No. I believe I may be from another dimension, from a world similar to yours but different in many ways as well."

It's obvious she wants to ask for more, but she goes quiet as she sits on the floor in front of him. It's unlike Naruto when he was younger. He'd have pestered him annoyingly until they had a heart to heart moment.

He sighed tiredly and stood in an attempt to search for something to clean the blood from his fur because there was no way in hell he was going to use his tongue to clean himself.

As he walks across the room, he notices that in the corner of the room there's some supplies that the girl more than likely scavenged. There was her doll that she carried with her in the woods, along with the weird metal weapon she used on the monsters. There was also a bottle of water that was half way full and two cans, with one of them open. The open one, it smells of food.

She catches his line of sight and walks over to pick it up and timidly offers the can of food towards him. "Want some? It's baked beans. They taste really good." She asks nervously.

The food did smell pretty good to him, but he doesn't eat anyways so he didn't need it. Although it was unlike any kind of food he's ever smelled before, at least it wasn't ramen. He's smelled enough ramen for his entire lifetime thanks to his idiotic jinchuuriki. Kurama appreciates the gesture though, It's obvious that there isn't much food to begin with and she's offering him what little she has. Even though she could've just hid it and kept it to herself.

"You're the one who needs to eat, brat. You're too thin." Kurama answered as he looked upon the girl with an appreciative look. "…Thanks." She looks down at her food and starts eating with her right hand. Kurama sticks his snout into the girl's small backpack next to her other supplies and pulls out a big cloth. Good enough to clean himself with for now. As he wipes the cloth on him she asks, "What are you exactly? Since I know you're not a normal fox and you're not an alien."

He doesn't think 'The Strongest Tailed Beast' will answer her question. 'Demonic entity' probably has the same meaning that it has in the elemental nations, so that's outta the question. 'I guess there's only one thing I could call myself.' Kurama thought before looking at her. "I'm a 'fox spirit' brat. And let's leave it at that." It rubs him the wrong way but after mentioning how he's the strongest of all the spirits throughout his life, it dwells.

"So how much has this… thing affected humanity? Is there some sort of order trying to keep the peace? Is there someone, anyone at all dealing with the problem or is everything just as fucked as it looks?" The girl frowns at this, clenching her can tighter.

While she does explain what she knows as much as she can, it still confused him slightly. She tells him about the police and military, how they use to protect everyday citizens from threats. So similar to the hidden leaf and yet so different that it boggles his mind. She went on to tell him about the virus, everything the scientist her former group met explained to them and what she understood from it. So… apparently this world is fucked. No police or military to protect those weaker than them, no leaders to guide the lost people of this world, nor were there any scientists to help find a way to stop the virus.

Hopefully he can find Naruto quickly and they can search for a way to get back home. Knowing him, he'll try to help this world and fix it if he finds how fucked everything is. Although after freeing his friends back home of course.

But that Uchiha brat was with them, too. Naruto will want to find him, too. And Naruto is too much of a trouble magnet to avoid people for long. He's going to find out the truth and that means they're going to stay for some time.

Great. Looking mournfully at the state of his fur and the cloth that was already dirty, he glances at the kitchen. He probably already knew the answer to his next question but it didn't hurt to ask. "Is the water working here?"

She shakes her head. "Sadly no, that would be great right now if it did." Well, this world truly was not doing great. "But there is a small lake not far away from where you found me. I could've gotten water from it, however there are lots of walkers near it, though." He gives a tentative lick to the back of his paw before scrunching his nose in distaste. "I need to go there. I take pride in my fur, I can't leave it in this state." Sophia nods silently in understanding before lowering her head to look at the floor. "Oh… ok."

He's still weak but it seems he has slept at least a day. It's not enough to recover a huge portion of his chakra but it was enough to avoid those walkers. Not like they can transform him, anyways. He doesn't actually have an actual flesh and blood body to react to whatever infection they have spreading around.

He can just go to that lake, get around those walkers, clean himself, then walk on top of the surface of the water to where those beings aren't walking and he can search for a place to rest for some time, safe enough strength so that he can find him. Or at the very least Naruto finding him. The brat may be weak, like him, but he has most of his chakra in him so he'll be able to recover faster. Even if he has just suffered through a Tailed Beast extraction.

He's going to have enough chakra and regain control over it in a couple of weeks to attempt sage mode and search for him. Now he only hopes that the idiotic blonde will be able to remember he can use it.

"I won't see you anymore, Nine?" Kurama is already ready to just turn around and walk away but Sophie's question stops him dead in his tracks. He looks in her direction and sees her legs draw to her chest, arms hugging them protectively. Her chin is on top of her knees, the emptied can of food sitting next to her. Kurama doesn't need to be able to sense emotions to know she's afraid and lonely.

Again, he no longer sees her. He sees the boy sitting on a swing under a grand oak tree. Him watching how parents would hug their children and kiss them on the cheeks as they take them home, congratulating them on passing the graduation exam. All the while they would ignore him, whispering harsh words and calling him names while glaring at him. Her eyes and hair are a darker shade, her skin is pale and not tan, but…

"You can come with me if you want, brat. We can look for your group while I wait for my friend. If we find him first and he gets to know you, he'll want to search for your group anyways. So it's better to start now and leave."

Looking up, eyes widen with hope as she stares at the bigger than normal fox . "Really?" Kurama just turns towards the door that leads out of the broken home. "Yeah. I'm weak now though and I wouldn't be much use in a fight, so we better search for a place where we can stay and I can rest." She stands up quickly and smiles brightly as she walks towards where her stuff was in the corner and starts packing it all up.

Kurama sighed, he blames his weakness with blue eyed, blond haired brats on Naruto. 'Damn him and his persistence on being friends.' Though, this last thought put a slight smirk on his snout.

Farther Away, In a Dark Building

Far away from the place Kurama was, a man checks the pulse of a teenager laid on a bed.

"It's amazing how stable he is. He fell from really high up but there are only a couple of wounds on him caused from it." This man being the doctor of the said place was astonished by the complete defiance of human nature.

"Do you think it was from a helicopter or an airplane he fell from?" Asks another man, charisma and an air of power giving him the air of the one in charge.

"Hard to guess. I ain't saw anythin' on the sky," says a gruff man with a false hand, a real deep hillbilly accent. "Ye know what that purple thin' was?" The doctor looks at him with apprehension but answers anyways.

"No. But I didn't see it, so I can't guess its origin either, you said it disappeared as soon as the guys went to where he fell?" The hillbillys face scrunched up before replying. "Yeah. Kinda looked like bones. Weird shit."

The man of charisma, the leader of the place they were at, Just shook his head. "Just try to get as much info out of his body as you can get. I want to know what that purple energy was. Perhaps the military is working on some new bio weapon with this kid being the host. If we can get it, it'll be beneficial to us in the long run."

"What? But I don't have the equipment to do any thorough research. It'll be impossible without it. Our safest bet would be to ask him when he wakes up…" He trails off, glancing at the young, pale teenager laid on the bed.

His black hair matted slightly with blood. He couldn't be more than eighteen.

"If the lil doc can't get what we want while the kid is asleep, do we kill him, Governor?" The Governor sighs and shakes his head sadly. The doctor sees this action and offers weakly: "He's just a kid." The hillbilly looks at the doctor with a sarcastic expression. "A kid that fell from who knows where and still kicks it. That's crazy."

"I have to agree with Merle here. We can't have him here in Woodbury. He'll destroy the peace we've fought hard to maintain." He nods towards Merle to confirm the dark deed needs to be done and he smiles with his own, far too pleased smile as he takes a knife from the back of his pants. He gets right to the top of the table were the kids head laid and positions himself to take the kill.

However as he's lifting his hand up to build momentum so the weapon can get all the way down to the brain, the boy's eyes open, one red eye with a black star like design in it and another purple eye with rings going around the pupil and nine tomes, three on each of the closet three rings from his pupil. Everything that occurs from that point in time happens in a flash of movement.

Author Notes

Update: Hey everyone, here are some updated notes. So yes, I was gone a long time. Just read up above if you haven't yet. But yeah, since I'm back I decided to update this chapter of the story and continue it as a whole, meaning I'm just gonna focus on this story for now. Over the next two days I'm going to update the already released chapters with grammar and paragraph fixes, then I'll release new chapters. Rest of the notes are the same so I'll see y'all soon!

Stories you can choose from!

A Different Deku

The Way Of The Hero And Ninja

A Different Time-line

The Neo Spider-man

The Will Of The Force

Although in case you're curious when this takes place, then this takes about a month from when Sophia separated from the group. And immediately after Naruto and Sasuke seal Kaguya up with planetary devastation.

Until next chapter, Until the light calls again… Peace out.


	2. Chapter 2: The Broken Uchiha

Chapter 2: The Broken Uchiha

Updated Author Notes: Hey there, welcome back! The second updated chapter is out! About it for new notes but on the bottom, next chapter will have way more that I'll need help with. End of updated notes. Now this chapter will mainly focus on Sasuke and his situation in Woodsbury. Now you get to see some badassery happen without jutsu even being used!

See you at the end! I hope you enjoy :)

Woodsbury

If you were to ask around the elemental nations, most of the civilians would tell you that shinobi don't sleep. Or that they do in a bizarre way, like with one eye closed and the other open, for a lack of a better simile. They hear stories of assailants attempting to kill one ninja in what they thought was their moment of vulnerability.

However, the civilians thought that they're shinobi, so they weren't at risk. In their minds, before the no-name enemy can reach its sleeping victim, the sixth sense that all ninjas have makes them wake up completely and immediately. As a result, they can stop its attacker with flashy movements so afterwards they can give a monologue of 'Ha! You thought you could trick a ninja!' and then it's over for the would be assassin.

The truth is not as fantastic as that however. Or at least, it is with elite ninja. They don't have a sixth sense like most assume. The thing is, when one is used to death, battles, and ill intent being thrown in on a daily basis as if it was nothing (and in most cases, is nothing), your subconscious evolves in a way that can recognize these things without trouble. It knows the feeling and that's where half of the reflexes come from: experience; the other half being brought by old, plain training.

One won't suddenly wake up and go all ninja if they're just some genin wet behind the ears who hasn't seen a true battle yet.

Coincidentally, Sasuke is not one of them. His training with Orochimaru made sure he was always attentive of his surroundings, without caring if one was up or asleep. That's how, even if he's unconscious and his body hurts all over, he still can detect ill intent. Someone's trying to kill you, his mind screams out.

He isn't awake yet, his mind still foggy from pain and lack of rest, but the adrenaline is already flowing through his system. His eyes are open so his sharingan is quick to react and process the information he sees but yet his still clouded brain can't quite comprehend. He lets years of reflexes do his bidding and grabs the arm of the person holding the knife, leg moving to kick the person's stomach with all the strength he could muster; even if his ribs protest from the movement.

The result is the person is now doubled over on the ground. The knife now being held in his hand. Another person scrambles backwards, leaking of fear and Sasuke, who stands up despite the pain, hits the back of the knife against the fearful man's nose before sliding a foot under the person so that he falls to the ground.

There's another man who is pulling some sort of weapon from their waistband, but he gets interrupted mid way through the action as Sasuke quickly slips behind the man. His left arm was gripping the man's weapon away from him while he pointed the knife to the man's jugular with his right arm.

It's over in less than ten seconds and it's not until pain shoots through his left arm, the one holding the man's weapon, that he wakes up completely. He swears he's able to hear his bones grinding against each other alongside his loud heartbeat and he holds a wince back. Definitely something cracked in his left arm.

"…Thought ye said he wasn't going to stand up for a couple more days, doc," the man on the floor, who got kicked by Sasuke, wheezes. He still seems to be trying to catch his breath from the kick.

The supposed doctor, the one radiating fear, holds his own nose in pain, only to grip said nose check the damage; there are tears forming in his eyes from the pain, but he still manages to answer, "He's purple all over and has bruised ribs. His arm is beyond broken, it's not supposed to be working for crying out loud!" So, he was right about the sharp pain in his arm then.

"Young man, it'll be best if we sit down and discuss this situation. You don't want to do something you'll come to regret later," Says the man that he had hostage, nodding slightly to the knife on his neck.

Sasuke would scoff, but it's beneath him. He has the situation in control, he's not the one who will lose here. "Who are you?" he asks calmly.

His memory is vague, all he remembers is sealing Kaguya, watching from the sealing take place from a distance, going through an open portal, his hand trying to reach Naruto before looking to the side to see a mass of red energy, who most likely was the Nine Tailed Fox, being thrown away from the blond, and then… pitch black darkness. One thing he's sure of: Somehow, it's Naruto's fault.

"May we know the name of my kidnapper first?" At Sasuke's pointed glare, the man continues, "You're in Woodbury, young man. A safe haven from the horrors of the outside. We're secured here and none of those monsters can reach us. Not even if they're inside. There are more of our people than just us, boy. In this community, we protect our people and if you think you'll be able to walk away from here alive, you're sorely mistaken."

There's confidence in the man, an arrogance that rubs Sasuke the wrong way, but if his guess is right and he's in another dimension, he needs information. He doesn't know how this world works and what's happening. What are these monsters the man mentioned? Are they truly powerful creatures or something he can handle easily? He needs a secure place to heal his wounds, build up more chakra, and rest.

But most of all, he needs the knowledge to survive in this new world.

Pressing the knife a little tighter against the man's neck and leaking some killing intent, Sasuke whispers, "I don't think so." The other men in the room go tense, sweat starts forming on their foreheads and there's palpable fear in the air.

Sasuke is injured, tired, and possibly a step away from chakra exhaustion. Yet, his mind is sharp; honed-battle experience still intact. His sharingan can see their lack of training and strength; his rinnegan, their small amount of chakra and overall life force. Even less than a civilian in his world would have, but yet a sufficient amount to live. They don't even pose a threat to a genin.

"This is what we're going to do. You'll answer my questions and return my Chokuto blade. You'll give me a place to sleep, enough food for two days worth of meals and the needed medical supplies for my body to heal. If you do that, I'll leave your people alone and I won't kill every, single, one of you." The doctor looks up at him in protest and their eyes lock. His gaze into the teens eyes made his own widen in horror and awe. "What are you?" he whispers.

The man in his grip turns slightly in an attempt to catch what the other saw, only to see the same happening to the man kneeling on the floor. Sasuke lets them take in his intense eyes. Fear will make it easier to make them comply. He increases the killing intent only a tiny bit more just to make them a bit more fearful.

He narrowed his eyes at the men but the action doesn't make his eyes lose their grip on their victims—it doesn't lessen the power displayed to the men. They stiffen, realization coming at them like a physical blow to the gut. They now know how much above their pay grade the situation has turned.

Sasuke smirks. "Let's start."

Couple of Minutes later

It still took some light pushing before he obtained his answers without letting them know how much he doesn't actually know. If there was one thing he learned from his time with Orochimaru is the value of knowledge. He knows the power of knowledge. And thanks to well-used words they assume he knows as much as they do, which is better for him.

Now he only has to maintain that balance of knowing vs not knowing.

Doctor Milton, after making sure his nose is realigned and that Sasuke finished retrieving all the weapons they had, goes to dress his wounds. Apparently, only one was already dressed but thanks to his sudden movements, the gash on his back made by his own blade opened.

He doesn't think he could be able to change the bandages from that wound without help. And using any kind of jutsus wouldn't be of any help with his current levels of chakra either. A simple bunshin would be tough enough; the kage bunshin is currently nigh impossible.

"It's kind of amazing how you don't even react to the amount of pain you should be in." Sasuke glances at the doctor working on his back and raises an eyebrow. Seeing his expression, the doctor adds, "I'm not this kind of doctor, the one that stitched your back was another one. In the short time since this happened, I've just learned basic kit aid. I'm not really good and I'm sure I'm making more mistakes than not. Are you sure you don't want to have her check this?"

Sasuke contains his smirk. In short, they've their own doctor, a female one. They've got a lot of people living here. The 'event' they've been talking about that happened not so long ago. And Milton is some kind of researcher, like Orochimaru, since he wasn't the doctor that stitched him up. He's the one in charge of looking into how he survived the fall.

The doctor and the gruff man are better at gaining information from than their leader. He's gained much just by letting them talk but never lets it show, so he simply answers,

"Just make sure I won't bleed out." He doesn't know if he'll have to fight again once outside, though something tells him he will. Even so, it's better to take precautions.

"And what do you plan to do once outside and after we've compiled your demands, young man? You have us in the palm of your hand. Will you demand for our weapons? Supplies, all our food? Do you plan to kill us all? Kidnaping would only get you so far, after all."

The way he changes the tone of certain keywords amuses him. He's trying to make him slip. Sasuke doesn't know much about this world but it doesn't seem like much if they use such weak psychological tactics on him. Or perhaps it's because of his age? Do they think he'll doubt his own actions because of what they assume is a rebel act from a teenager?

He would normally ignore him but... He glances at the weapon he retrieved from the Governor, the one that appears to be way more complex to use than a simple knife, before looking at the man. "How long has this place existed?"

The Governor, known by others as Philip Blake, frowns at the lack of concern the young man had about his situation but answers anyway. "Since this disaster started. Milton, you must know the exact date of when it started right?"

"Eighth five days and counting. Alright, I'm pretty sure I'm done with your back. Someone'll have to set your arm though. It's already looking bad." And he's right, the skin is swollen to hell and red.

He only knows basic medic jutsu, the kind that can fix his bruised ribs but not his broken arm. It'll be enough to make the pain go away once the bone is set and the fever starts. He still needs that doctor, though.

"You mentioned a doctor. I'll have her see it. The Governor can then guide me to what will be my place in your community." Sasuke said. "Thar a couple of empty houses. Or do ye have somethin' in mind already? Whatcha gonna want? A mansion, yer highness?" Merle scoffs when he isn't able to get a raise of annoyance out of him.

Sasuke simply ignores the gruff man as he continues, "The smallest one will do. I just need a place to sleep and recover. It'd be preferable if it's far from your people."

"Yes, I think we've got a one floor house close to the borders. Small but hopefully enough for our young guest," the Governor says with a bland smile. Sasuke nods and stands up, motioning the others to go in front of him and guide him to the exit. The room is empty except for an older man sleeping in the corner of the room. He doesn't spare him a glance as he moves, though he grabs a few pens he finds and shoves them into the pockets of the pants they gave him.

The gun is still in his good hand, but the knife is in the pocket of the pants they gave him. He quickly switches out the gun for the knife. It's better to use something he already knows how to use efficiently than fumble with something new and unknown.

When the Governor's hand is wrapped around the door's handle, he turns to smile at him. "I hope you like Woodbury." It's no surprise when as soon as the governor opens the door he sees a man pushing him away. He goes to punch Sasuke as soon as their leader is out of the way, perhaps in an attempt to separate him and give the others standing near a good shot. There were seven other people outside with weapons trained on him, one woman and six men.

Perhaps he held those three men for his mental interrogation for too long. The woman and three of the men were standing by the door waiting to ambush him while the remaining three men stayed in the back with longer and much bigger versions of the strange weapon that currently rested in his back pocket. Their weapons are slightly lowered, clearly not expecting much from an injured teenager, and that's going to be their downfall.

Sasuke is not going to let people as unprepared as they are to get the upper hand.

He locks eyes with the man who pushed the Governor away and he uses his surprise at seeing his eyes to his advantage. There are only two sounds from the missing shots before they stop as Sasuke dodges under the man's guard and gives a good kick on his right shin, making the man fall to the ground with a cry. He then grabs their leader again to use him as a shield, the knife at the older man's neck, making the others back off a bit.

He takes a moment to check the position of his attackers, before he starts counter attacking.

He begins by shoving the Governor towards the bigger man on his right, making both fall to the ground. He runs from out of the doorway to the one nearest one and doesn't give her a chance to shoot. He strikes his knee into her gut and elbows her right hand which was holding the gun and he quickly knocks her out cold by slamming the back of his knife into her unprotected jaw. A man next to her turns to shoot but he has immediately knocked out with a high kick to the face.

Sasuke then uses his knife to cut the next man's left hand that held his weapon, forcing him to drop it. The other man still standing rushes towards the teen holding a machete while the other leans to get his gun off the ground.

In one fluid motion that came with years of training, Sasuke jumps into the air and launches a split kick. His left foot landed squarely on the machete man's chest, knocking him onto the ground, while his right foot met with the kneeled man's temple, knocking him onto unconsciousness.

Sasuke takes a quick breath, knocking out the others without hurting his own injuries was a little challenging but nothing he couldn't handle.

The man with the machete groans as he slowly tries to sit up, only for Sasuke to stand over him and give a quick but heavy right punch to his face, knocking him out cold. Sasuke quickly pulls out the pens he picked up earlier and faces the people farther away from him, looking ready to attack him at any given moment. He starts merging some chakra into the pens and, with the godly perception given to him by his eyes, he throws them at the snipers.

His chakra nature may be useless to try to use at the time being, but he can still pour some of his dwelling chakra into the pens. This made them faster, stronger, and made it so they could explode after use.

The snipers were shocked to say the least that pens were thrown at them, but they were shaken to their very cores when they saw the damage the pens could actually do. The 1st sniper was struck right on his right shoulder, digging almost completely in. The second sniper had a pen go through his shooting hand making him drop his weapon in pain. The third and final sniper didn't even get to react because as soon as the last pen hit his gun, it exploded, sending all three snipers to the ground. All that was left off the last gun was scrap and parts, the whole body being mangled beyond repair.

He can't kill them, not yet at least. If he did, it would allow them to think more irrationally about his presence and they'll resort to rash actions, actions that'll lead to try and kill Sasuke when he's going to use a place in Woodsbury as a base of sorts until he recovers.

After he finishes his fighting with the group, he grabs the Governor again into his hold, pressing his knife into his neck lightly. Merle is pissed off as he lays on the ground, holding his missing hand close to his chest as it had gotten knocked off after being pushed down. The doctor hasn't moved from his spot since the fight started. Sasuke tightens the pressure of the knife against the Governor's neck while he tries to clear the spots in his vision.

There are moans of pain from his many victims that laid on the ground, either that or knocked into blissful unconsciousness. Sasuke can see a couple of people looking from behind the windows of the houses and stores nearby, all of them giving him fearful or angry expressions, but he ignores all of the people's stares as he tries to not sway on his feet and show how much the fight has affected him.

He takes a deep breath, knowing the only thing keeping him awake is his Rinnegan. That makes up what little Sage's chakra he has flowing through his system. Once he closes that eye completely, he'll be unconscious for a couple days at least. He'll have sore muscles for more than a few weeks, if his tenketsu points recover from the strain his body's under, that's it.

He needs to continue then and stop it quickly. He can't stop now. "Where's the doctor you mentioned? The one that's actually competent at doing her job." He pants, his voice coming out stronger than he actually is.

He feels the strain his eyes are under, felt almost as if they would bleed from any more strain, well more than his right eye anyways. He overused it using the Susanoo too much, especially since he had to put so much chakra through it to survive the fall.

The Governor's face is red with anger, posture stiff as he walks, not even once glancing at the men on the floor. "Right over towards our makeshift hospital. This way."

Woodsbury Hospital

"I've never seen or known eyes like yours to have ever existed in human history." Sasuke doesn't answer, but he's faintly surprised she hasn't asked about the blood coming from his said right eye yet, or why he's using a small bowl to contain the blood flow instead of using a handkerchief to clean it.

"Is it ready?" he asks as she takes a step back to look at her work. She used some wood to make a splint so the bone would be kept firmly in place, mentioning while working on his arm how lucky he is that the broken bone was an easy one to deal with.

Nodding at the teen, Dr. Stevens helps him put on a simple, loose white dress t-shirt, making sure to cut the part where the cloth meets his broken arm so it could hang out freely. She moves to button it, but Sasuke holds up his hand, stopping her; it'll be easier to check his bandages if it's opened up.

She hesitates but chooses to ignore it as another one of his many quirks. "You're a strong young man, especially since you can deal with the process of setting your arm without anesthesia. We don't have much of it but you could have… asked for it."

The word 'demand' is obviously on the tip of her tongue but she doesn't say it, choosing to glance at the Governor leaning against a wall instead.

She shakes her head before turning to Sasuke with a familiar, small sternful face that gives her a motherly look that makes him frown uncomfortably and makes him want to leave.

He stands up and this time it's hard to stay that way. He grabs the chair he was sitting on with his good hand and takes a shaky breath while waiting for the room to stop moving.

"You should take these. We've a few stashed so one less won't do much for now." Doctor Stevens said. He looks up to see what she's talking about and, in a way, to dissuade the feeling of throwing up. He then sees bags of blood inside a freezer behind her. He points at one of them. "Give me one of those."

Dr. Stevens knows he's a step away from blood loss but doesn't ask why not make the transfusion happen right then and there. Why not ask for needles and other implements. Sasuke sees those questions on her face and more. He raises an eyebrow at this, only to have her scowl at him and gives him the bag. Sasukes's muscles clenched as he grabbed it but at least his hand didn't tremble as he held it, nor wanting to show any more weakness then he already had.

"But take this, too." It's then he notices the cane she's holding for him. He frowns, ready to refuse the wooden cane, but the then doctor points at his legs; they were trembling. Sasuke grimaces at the sight but takes the cane. He gives it a few practice swings with his good hand, doing some stances he uses with his sword, not needing the Governor to think he's now able to deal with the weakend teen, before he lowers it to the ground and starts to walk.

"Let's go," he says when he notices the Governor is still behind him. He doesn't turn, knowing the simple movement will be enough to make him dizzy. Sasuke just clenches his grip on the cane a little tighter and waits two seconds before moving forward. After all, he doesn't have enough energy to spend waiting.

Tiny Home, Near The Border Of Woodsbury

Once he's sure there's no one inside the small house the Governor guided him to, Sasuke closes the door on the older man's face. He doesn't check the windows or bothers to check the rest of the rooms, he just locks the door behind him. Sasuke needs a place to let himself fall unconscious and he needs it now.

Quickly he grabs a pillow off of a nearby couch and quickly cuts it open with the knife that he is now keeping with him at all times. He takes out any fluff and examines the case itself. This will have to do for now. He no longer cares if his movements aren't as graceful as they were a couple of minutes ago as he goes to the kitchen and opens every cabinet door he finds. He gently lays the cane against the nearby fridge as he grabs everything that's essential.

Sasuke's not naïve. He knows it won't take long for the Governor's people to come and break into the small house to steal these items and kill him. From what he heard, all the houses have some canned food, bottled water, and other supplies that could be useful.

He grabs it all and stuffs it into his makeshift bag, lugging it all to the only bedroom there was in the house. As he looked around the room, he was glad that there was only a window inside, which meant it was the only way to spy into the room. Even then, the window had curtains on them so that made Sasuke feel a little bit easier.

He glances at the only closet in the bedroom and lets a relieved breath escape his breath. That'll do.

Adrenaline is what's currently making him able to move and carry the heavy bag of goods so he takes advantage of it until the last drop. Leaving the bag on the bed, he goes to open the closet in front of the only window with wobbling legs and a throbbing headache. He then pulls out the blood bag and holds out the bowl he had been carrying. He sets the bowl down on the floor, him weakly kneeling down, and takes out his knife and cuts off a small bit of the corner of the bag. He then poured the bag's content into the bowl, mixing it with the blood that bleed from his left eye.

Luckily, he got to the small home in time before his blood could dry up, and there was enough of his blood left for him to conduct his plan. He mixes it with his right pointer finger that had the last of his chakra flowing through it. He then pulls his finger out of the mixed blood and starts making seals on the door and walls of the closet.

He's no seal master by any means, but he knows how to guard a place so only the high jounin level can enter. And that's more than enough to make the walls strong enough against the Governor's people. Thanks to his natural affinity being lighting, he can electrify the seals so anyone trying to get in will end up getting painfully electrocuted without needing the extra chakra to pour into them if you didn't have the affinity.

Finishing the seals on the closet, he gets up unsteady like and grabs the pillowcase full of his supplies and puts them in the closet, with the expectation of a couple cans of food and two bottles of water. He then closes the doors to the closet and makes a sign with his good hand. "Seal." Sasuke whispers under his breath, with the seal glowing light blue for a second before dying back down.

Sasuke then grabs pillows and sheets from the bed and goes to the bathroom. He then places them inside the tub and puts his goods and water on top of the toilet seat. He then picks up his bowl of mixed blood and does the same thing he did to the closet.

After he finishes sealing up the bathroom, he then places the cane next to the toilet. Taking a deep, slightly anxious breath, Sasuke goes and gets inside the tub and lays down. Finally, his body just quit moving for him and he just laid there for a long time. Tears of pain that he can't stop falling from his eyes finally flow down his cheek, his body completely ignoring how cold the tub hard surface was.

Finally, he lets the small amount of chakra in his eyes recede. The moment his right turned to its usual black and he closed his left eye completely, it's as if a switch had been flipped off and all the pain he has previously ignored comes back with a vengeance. He tries to close his right eye to sleep but it doesn't stop the onset of full body tremors that wrack his pale frame. Muscles that felt his if they were strung tight like bow strings started screaming out as they seized for what felt like an eternity until something finally just snapped, making his body go slack and his mind completely blank.

Updated Author Notes:

Chapter 2 is finally updated! Now look out for chapter 3 coming either tomorrow or the day after. I'll add more of an update in Chapter 3 so I'll see y'all then.

Now this story will get a bit more involved with Naruto soon but obviously we needed to focus on Sasuke and Kurama first. We all know how Naruto is going to be around people but for the anti social Kurama and the aggressive Sasuke they react differently in these situations. Now ima go ahead and finish this up. Y'all waking up to a treat lol. Until next time, Until The undead rise again into another chapter… Until The Light Calls…Peace.


	3. Chapter 3: Innocence Lost

**Chapter 3: Innocence**

**Author Notes: Hey everyone, I'm back! With a new chapter as promised. However if you haven't read the newly updated chapters, then now you know I'm back after a long time. The explanation and what I'm going to do for the future are in the newly updated chapters, but I'm also gonna put them in the bottom notes if you're interested. I do advice to re-read the previous chapters because with the grammar fixes and paragraph edits, it'll really bring out more of the story. In any case, enjoy and I'll see you after!**

**In The Woods**

The similarities he finds between the Elemental Nations and this new world are too many for his liking. It's not much, not noticeable—but still there.

The technology this world has is superior. Or that's what he learns from the explanations the girl, Sophia, tells him about whatever they stumble upon during their travels.

In three days he learned about cars and helicopters to daily household items like TV's and telephones. Guns and tanks are new but are somehow not surprising. These humans cannot use chakra to fight, it's obvious they'll find something to harm each other with.

Terrifying weapons, not because they're more deadly. They offer detachment to the attacker, being able to kill someone at distance without need of hard training. A battle to death doesn't seem to exist here. However battles for death do. Kurama hates this world even more than his own. It disgusts him.

Perhaps he's lucky he's met this girl. He obviously needs the knowledge to understand this world, to try and search for a way back home.

Not for his own sake of course, but for Naruto's. Naruto of course still wants to free everyone from the infinite tsukuyomi, but he'd miss all his friends and comrades if he couldn't make it back home. He doesn't need to see the idiot depressed all the time instead of his usual cheery self.

The language of this world is not different but the writing of it is. That alone would be detrimental for gathering some more information. He's no Naruto. He doesn't have the charisma to gain other people's trust so they can aid him. He's not him and doesn't want to. He knows torture is his only option, but… Naruto kind of screwed him over. With his words of friendship and easy smiles—his trust on him.

That smile before they separated, he knows it was for his sake. Naruto's actions before being thrown away to who knows where meant to comfort Kurama. And he doesn't want to torture or seriously hurt humans that don't deserve it because for some stupid, idiotic reason he doesn't want to let Naruto's faith on him down. He doesn't want that bright, warm, trusting smile, one that has been directed at him, turn into one of disappointment.

Not that he'd ever say it aloud. Or ever.

So… he really has been fortunate to have met Sophia first in this world. He hates humans, he really does, no matter which world they're from. He doesn't think he'd be able to remain civil with one. Or want to talk with one. However, kids are 'cleaner' in a way. Still innocent and not so full with those other darker human qualities. Dealing with kids it's easier and not only because information is obtained faster from them.

Light manipulation isn't recognized in their naïve minds after all.

On the other hand, sometimes they're too innocent, too indifferent from the horrors of the world because their eyes choose to ignore them even when they're surrounded by real life nightmares.

Naruto was like that once. Trying to protect his innocence with smiles and loud proclamations from the glares and harsh words of the civilians. But he did know. Oh, that he did. He tried to ignore it but it was impossible.

He needed a wake up call and it came in the form of a ramen vendor giving him free food for him to realize what kindness felt like, what he wanted to obtain. Then came his goal. His stubbornness did everything else.

This girl has a goal. What she needs now is her own wake up call. Naruto's was gentleness, what will be hers? The same thing? No, she's had a better life than Naruto and understands kindness. What she needs is a shove forward towards being a survivor.

"Can we rest? I'm—I'm hungry." Kurama glances at the little girl jogging next to him. Her face is flushed as she pants heavily, speed slowly weakening with every step she takes. Her shirt has wet spots in some parts and her arms are full of scraps from each time they had to go through bushes. Yep. She definitely needs that push.

They've been keeping a steady pace for about two hours because of the walkers they've seen near the lake, choosing to evade that horde completely and instead of getting completely surrounded by it. They've found two houses nearby and grabbed everything useful. Unfortunately for Sophia, those places had little to no food and scarcely any clean water.

Kids are easy to obtain information from but that doesn't make them easier to deal with. They require too much attention and maintenance.

He stops and the girl does the same immediately, slowly lowering herself to the ground as she tries to recover her breath sitting down. Her stomach rumbles, as it has been doing the past half an hour. Understandable considering her last food has been some cookies eight hours ago. Seeing her sweaty and tired makes Kurama decide to take some pity on her and let her rest.

They've rested for a day and have been on the move together for two days, mostly taking lunch breaks and sleeping in those houses after making sure they were clear. Although he could've made it there in half the time they were traveling as the lake wasn't that far, but thanks to Sophia's human needs, it was taking forever.

It's true she hasn't whined at all until now and he has learned a lot about this world's culture and what's actually happening thanks to her. Maybe he can throw her a bone. Positive reinforcement and all that. That one eyed teacher of Naruto did the same to train his ninja hounds, it should work with a little girl, right?

Turning his head around the clearing they stopped in, Kurama sniffs the air for a couple of seconds. "What are you doing, Nine?"

Kurama glances at her. "Stay here. I'll return shortly."

Sophia's expression turns to one of worry as the fox avoided her question. "There's no walkers nearby, right?"

"No." Was his simple reply.

"Okay then. I'll wait." Her previous sitting position dissolves with her words as she falls back against the ground. Her expression melts as well as she takes deep breaths. "Take care."

Kurama snorts and starts running into the woods. She's not as worried anymore in the way she was the first time he told her he was going to hunt and scout for an hour, so it's an improvement. He still needs to know more than what a kid can offer and also replenish his chakra.

He's no Sage by any means, but he can still retrieve energy from nature itself thanks to being a beast made from the ten tails. This world is tainted from war and pollution but he can still draw bits of what's left of the earth's power and turn it into something he can use.

As his chakra is still dangerous for others without Naruto to transform and control it, he needs a bit of space to work. It's hard to do it while sitting completely in this world of monsters but until he does have some secured base he won't be able to sleep and recover. He can only meditate.

This time he's not going off for a scouting run though. He sniffs the air once more and there's a rustle of leaves above him. 'Got you.' He's a predator. The one on top of the food chain. Fighting against a goddess is hard. Capture a simple animal to eat? Easy.

Now he only has to remember what little survival classes Kushina and Naruto took in the Academy. It's going to be hard because they're both knuckleheads that didn't pay too much attention. At least his first host, Mito Uzumaki, wasn't dense like those two.

With one quick chakra powered jump, Kurama then pounces into the tree baring his fangs. With a quick struggle, the fox nods as he keeps a tight grip on his prey and jumps down, rushing back to Sophia.

**Moments later**

"You want me to—what?" Human's kids are harder to work with than he thought. "You found that pocket knife, remember? You can skin the squirrels using that. The entrails will be harder to reach but still possible. The weather's getting colder so it'll last. "

The girl—The brat, because that's what she is now, she keeps giving him an horrified look as her eyes don't move away from the two squirrels with the necks bent in weird positions. Her head is slowly shaking, as if to erase what she's seeing in front of her.

Kurama growls. His body tenses as he pushes down the killing intent. She looks so similar but she's so weak. It disgusts him that someone with his traits can be this weak minded being. He doesn't like it. He wants to erase the evidence of it.

His tail darts forwards to grab the girl's right arm. She startles at first, her body leaning back and her doll falling to the ground. But those blue eyes, turning into a darker blue because of the unshed tears in her eyes, look directly into his red eyes. They anger him, but yet at the same time they manage to calm him down and he snarls, claws biting into the soft ground as he lets his temper recede, turning it into annoyance.

"Listen to me, brat. The world you knew is gone. You're alone now and you'll need to do and learn things you don't like. I won't deal with someone who can't even skin their food to survive, so tell me: Do you want to find your group?"

A couple of birds sing from upwards as the girl's lips tremble, unaware of the fact that her mind wanted to keep her naive and innocent. Her eyes become watery and she clutches the grip on her doll once but he doesn't back down.

His tail's grip tightens around her arm and Kurama wants to curse his lack of power.

Because his paws are too small to use his opposable thumbs right now to use instead of his tail, which agitated him more. "Do you want to find your group?" He repeats, his voice much more gentle this time.

Her head bobs slowly, shakily, a couple of tears falling down her cheeks. "Yes," she chokes but it's too weak for his liking. He can wait for her wake up call, or he can make one to help give her that push.

Kurama grabs the pocketknife from the ground where it fell and places it in front of her. He doesn't give her the squirrels yet as he drops them next to her. He then flexes his muscles and jumps up with a little chakra. It's easy to move from branch to branch, painful, but easy.

One second he's up; the next he's on the ground next to her, with a small bird's wing between his fangs.

Kurama puts the flailing bird at her feet. The animal tries to fly but the broken wing makes him unable to do so. "This will be your food. Kill it."

The girl openly sobs, eyes not looking at the struggling bird whose panicked sounds are getting louder with each movement it makes. "It's going to attract walkers if you don't do it. Show me how much you want to survive."

A trembling hand grabs the knife while the other hovers uncertainty close to the bird. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she murmurs when she grabs the bird. It screams louder, head moving to every direction it can to get away, but the knife then closes in on its neck and that stops all the bird's movements as it went still. She takes a shaky breath in and her head turns slightly away, eyes not daring to see what she's going on in front of her.

"Don't look away. It's a life you're taking. Don't you dare ignore it and shrug it off just to protect yourself. This is a part of life. You can't help feeling guilty, but you can accept what you did and move on." A whimper escapes her lips as she looks at her kill. And in that moment he can see it in her eyes; the innocence leaving, being replaced with something else, something essential. She's realizing, truly now, what this world entails.

Reality is crashing at her and she no longer has someone that will pat her head and tell her everything will be alright.

She gags and cries as she pukes out what little was in her stomach for what she's lost and what she took, but Kurama is proud. He remembers Naruto's despair as he watched his comrades dying before him in the war, going into a catatonic state. It's thanks to his past experiences and that one woman who loves Naruto, that he looked at his enemies and friends alike and said, "I want to change it. I'll change this world, a world in which shinobi can understand each other." Choosing to deny reality and embrace his innocence and naive idealism.

Sophia hasn't killed a human, but with this and watching those around her die, this will mark her. He's sure of this. What's going to happen to her next, he wonders. She's no Naruto, he doesn't expect her to do and say the same, but he's decided to accompany her and he isn't going to let someone that physically similar to him be weak.

"Now, I'll teach you how to skin a squirrel and pluck a bird. Then I'll teach you how to cook them" She timidly nods and stands up from where she threw up and moves closer. She notices her doll on the ground and goes to pick it up, but the left little arm was bloody because of the bird's blood, and she hesitates. Her arm extends momentarily before her muscles tense and she retreats the limb. She glances at him but he's simply observing her actions without commenting. Her lips thin and a frown forms before Sophia leans down and grabs her doll with firm grip.

'Good job, brat.' Not that he'd ever say this out loud, his pride counted on it.

**A Few Hours Later**

"You can walk on water?" she asks, her words filled with wonder. Kurama glances from where he's on top of the water. This is the first time in three hours she has spoken more than a single word, much less a sentence. When he was guiding her on how to skin an animal and how to cook it, she only gave monosyllables as an answer. Not even asking how he managed to light a fire without help.

"Where I come from, people can do this. They can also walk on solid vertical surfaces." Kurama responds bluntly

"Everyone?" She asks, the wonder in her voice increasing slightly.

"Just the warriors. They all have different kinds of abilities and powers. With others stronger than others. However walking on water and up vertical surfaces is something almost all of them can do."

"And that friend you mentioned, is he strong?"

He stops cleaning his fur and considers if telling her more will be counterproductive or not. She's a kid alright, but she'll grow. He looks at her and marvels at how strong a child can be. Bags are under her eyes and she's afraid and tired, but also determined.

"One of the strongest, actually."

"Really? He must be pretty cool, then." Sophia says quietly as a tiny bit of awe appeared in her eyes for a brief moment.

Kurama snorts. "He's an idiotic goof and a loudmouth. An over confident and stubborn bastard. The kind that goes face first into a problem without thinking first. He must be probably whining about food right now. He's a glutton." But he's also kind and warm, with an unwavering will and fierce loyalty even if one doesn't deserve it. He can change others; make others want to change and be better.

"That doesn't sound too cool. How's he like?"

"You share similar traits, actually. He has blond hair and blue eyes, too. His skin's much tanner though. He also has some birthmarks that look like whiskers. And an awful fashion sense because he loves the color orange and refuses to wear anything without orange on it."

He submerges entirely into the water before leaving it. He shakes his body next to Sophia and she scrunches her nose. "Maybe that's why he's friends with you then. You have all orange fur." Her words aren't meant to hurt, and he can't sense any malice coming from her, just curiosity. They still make him halt and look towards the water, now tinted bright because of the sun reflection off of it.

It's late; they should search for a place to stay for the night. "Yeah… maybe that's why."

**A Couple Of Weeks Later**

"Are you sure this is this way?" Kurama stops and lifts his head up to glare at the young girl standing next to him. "Kid, I'm lowering myself to follow this scent. Don't question me and remind me I'm acting like a mutt."

"…Sorry." The girl lowers her head a bit, a shy expression now clear on her face.

He snorts. He can already picture Naruto throwing reassurances and bright grins to lift the girl's spirits while yelling at him about the proper way to treat small kids. It makes his lips curl up in annoyance. He knows he should apologize. However, unlike Naruto, he doesn't care if he hurt her feelings at all. Her world is already in chaos and on the brink of collapse, if mere words will be enough to bring her down then she's done for as a survivor.

Though he's had to admit she's gotten better. The day after their trip to the lake she asked him if he could trace her group. He was honest and informed her of the possibility. It brought her hopes up and they spent a couple weeks like that with him teaching her how to survive and showing her the ropes of shinobi's ways. He may hate them but he admits that they know a couple of useful things.

It wasn't until two days ago that he found a scent similar to the one in her doll. They've been following it ever since. It's faint but his heightened senses are better than a ninken. He can follow it. He's slightly concerned about the weather though. It's getting colder as winter gets near. They need a better place to stay away from the cold.

"Nine?"

"Now what?"

The girl doesn't complain but she does talk. A lot. He kind of misses the days she was afraid of him and concerned about bothering him. But now she would constantly ask him questions. Such is the persistence of a child's curiosity.

He waits for her to talk again but she doesn't answer, keeping quiet. Kurama frowns because that's unusual for the curious girl. He looks over his shoulder and sees the urgent face the girl's wearing. Her legs are slightly bent and he knows already what she wants to ask. He mentally sighs. Human's bodily functions are so bothersome, especially a childs. "We'll stop for five minutes."

"Thanks." she murmurs before leaving to go behind a tree far away from him but not enough so he loses sight of it. Kurama looks around and inhales deeply.

He has been following the scent for so long that it's become familiar to pick it up and ignore others, that's why just then he realized how close they were from a horde of walkers. He doesn't know the exact numbers because the odor of rotten flesh is similar, its overwhelming stench of death filled his nostrils.

There's also another smell. One he's used to and can easily recognize. Sweat, dirt, and… blood. Kurama closes his eyes to sense negative emotions and they come to him clearly. Fear, exhaustion, hopelessness.

Other can always sneak around them so as to not get caught in the crossfire, but where the fight was taking place is where the scent leads. This is the strongest the scent has been as of yet.

It's already night and, if the clouds are anything to go by, it was gonna rain rather soon. Not only that but he can sense it in the humidity around him. They need to know if the scent keeps going forward or if it turns to another place. They could lose the trail thanks to the rain and he's not too keen on spending more time trying to find it again.

The kid returns and Kurama looks conflicted for a split second. These people don't matter to the fox, but… he promised Sophia he'd find her group. And they need to keep up with the trail in order to keep that promise. Damn that Naruto for that as well; never going back on one's word. He then quickly informs her of what he's found. She looks up and a drop of water falls on her forehead. It's starting.

"More people?" Not only does she doubt this, but she's also afraid. She has told him about her group meeting others before. Some were nice, but others were… not so nice as she put it. Kurama can guess what happened though. He's seen what humans can do when they're scared. It doesn't bring out the best in them. When humans have fallen to the true depth of hopelessness is when these desperate and evil people begin to surface. When a human doesn't have anything to lose, things they have hidden before because of frail rules and morals come to light.

And it'll get worse as desperation sets in. When they realize their only option is survival, they will become the real monsters.

"What do you want to do?" He asks the girl, knowing they're short on time. Then miraculously, Sophia put on a determined look that reminded Kurama of a certain blonde ninja. "I want to go forward. They probably don't know there are walkers ahead. We should… we should warn them."

Kurama gives her an incredulous look but she's already moving towards where he pointed. He shouldn't have pointed. He bites the back of her shirt and stops her. She scowls and is ready to protest, he can see it on her face. "It's too late, kid."

"We don't know that! If these are good people then we have to help!" With that proclamation, Sophia looks back at Kurama with a pleading look.

Letting her go, he turns towards the clearing as he hears someone yell in fear, followed by the sound of hitting. Then a woman comes tumbling from some bushes with five walkers in tow. She uses the shovel in her hands to stop the one near her right but it's a futile attempt, the others already noticed them.

"We should help them!" Sophia persistently

whispers when two men come running forward from the foliage, followed by an older woman and a teenager. Coming after them however was another ten walkers.

"And then what?" Her body is ready to spring forward but his words stop her. "You have some food, water and other supplies in that bag. Not to mention a weapon. What do you think they'll do once they know this?" She bits her lower lip, action that makes her look younger. "They're in a group…"

"And you're searching for your own. Just because they're together doesn't mean they'll care for others outside their group. You don't need them." The boy falls to the floor and he tries to kick the one crawling towards him. The others are busy themselves but one man uses his own weapon to open a path and move towards him. "Ben!"

"They need us, Nine." She repeats for the last time and exclaims the words out loud, seemingly helping her make this decision. She puts her bag on the ground and shoves a hand inside to pull a couple of fireworks they found in a house. Grabbing a lighter from her pockets, she runs to some trees near the action.

Should he feel offended that she hasn't asked what he wants? Considering he's the one who's guiding her, he should get a say.

Too late to protest though, she's already throwing the fireworks into another bush and runs towards the other side. He should leave her. He's been trying to teach her but she's ignoring her words easily now. Kurama doesn't even exactly know why he's helping her. "Come on, Nine!"

He looks at her and remembers why. The next time he sees Naruto, he's going to kick him so hard in the face. Damn blond haired, blue eyed brats.

The fireworks only work on the closest dead to the fireworks. The other infected are more distracted with the humans close enough to pay attention. Even so, it still distracts them enough for Sophia to use that skewer they found inside a grill of one house to stab the one on top of the teenager in the head.

Though this place doesn't have enough chakra for him to use his surroundings to reform his reserves (he'll have to wait for Naruto to do that), Kurama has spent enough days resting and meditating so he has enough energy to run and attack. He's nowhere near close to his actual speed by any means but it's plenty to fight these weaklings, even if they're only weakness was their heads. They're seven against fifteenth walkers. It's difficult, but not impossible considering they have him.

He then runs in front of the group and jumps onto one the dead, ripping its head off its shoulders. The new group was surprised by the pure force the fox could make, but it inspired them to fight even harder. Luckily it didn't take long to cut down the large group of walkers. From the melee, shooting, and sneaking behind some unexpecting walker, the clearing became silent except for the panting and heavy breathing from the survivors.

"Are you okay, Tyreese?" Asks the younger woman once the clearing is free of walkers. He lost the handle of his hammer when said weapon got stuck in a walker's skull momentarily and she had to step in to save him from the last walker.

"I'm fine. Though we wouldn't have made it without you." He trails off, looking at the new girl who was panting near him. "Sophia. My name's Sophia." The woman steps forward. "Name's Sasha. This is my brother Tyreese."

"I'm Adam. My wife, Donna, and Ben, our son." The other man of the group, now named Adam, introduced his woman Donna goes to thank her for saving her son Ben, while the said boy does the same in a subdued way. Kurama can sense his shame and unease in the same way he can feel the sense of accomplishment coming from the girl.

They continue talking, relaxed now that no walkers are near, sharing what they did before the outbreak happened and asking how Sophia survived for so long on her own. Not that they questioned her survival, she did save them so she was pretty tough. She does answer, although she didn't give details. She does tell them enough however for them to not to ask for more as the fox taught her.

He had been breaking necks instead of biting or using his claws to help rip off the heads, but Kurama still doesn't move from where he is. Mostly because there's blood everywhere and he can't walk without stepping on some. Why? Because he doesn't have the chakra to spend in cleaning his fur, or walking on top of the blood as he did at the lake. It's all the old way now apparently and water is scarce.

He's still clean from his trip to the lake and he isn't going to dirt his fur so soon. Especially with a rotten, dead body's blood. The cleanest way for him to walk away from the gore is if someone turned over the dead guy to his left so he can jump on top of him and go to the cleaner ground. These humans did use weapons that left the surroundings bloody so everything's a mess.

Kurama's still debating if he's going to degrade himself and ask some assistance when the Sasha woman spots him while doing her self-appointed mission of checking if every fallen walker is really dead. "A fox?"

Her voice is loud enough to make the others turn and he can see their eyes widen at his form. "I've never known they could be this big," Donna adds, her hand moving to cover her mouth. "Explains why he was strong enough to rip off a walkers head. Damn." Tyreese said in awe.

Sophia seems confused at first. She looks at them, following their line of sight before locking eyes with him. She grins slightly seeing her friend as she opens her mouth to talk when the older, thin man approaches him with his weapon, a club. That makes her react as she quickly runs over to stand in front of the fox.

Kurama wants to scoff. It's not like he needed the help but the fact he doesn't want to move, mostly because of pride. Sophia's actions are enough to make Adam stop though. The girl glances briefly at him again, this time in the same way she did when he saw that look to help this very group. "He's Nine. We've been traveling together for a while."

"That's a fox. You do know they're wild animals, right?" says the teenager with a slight condescending tone. "He's right, Sophia. Foxes are not pets." This time he does scoff. Damn right he is not one. Sophia shakes her head. "He saved my life. He's my friend."

The words bring an odd sense of deja vu that makes it easier to ignore her motions for him to stand next to her as if he were a mascot, and saw it as genuinely asking him to come over. When she notices he hasn't moved, she turns around completely. "What's wrong nine?" She's smart enough to know it's not going to improve things if the big fox suddenly turns into the big talking fox, so he doesn't answer, choosing to point with his tail at the less bloody dead body. "Oh."

She tugs on the body and rolls it so he can use it as a bridge and smiles brightly at him, opening her arms wide to hug people behind her gasp but she ignores them. 'That smile…' He then shakes away that very thought knowing where it would lead. Kurama then gives her a raised eyebrow, unimpressed, before jumping with regal movements. He then hops off the body going right past her, making sure his waving tail smacks straight on her face. Looking over his shoulder, he nods mentally at seeing Sophia rubbing her face. "That was mean, Nine."

He smirks briefly and gives the others a nod of acknowledgment as he continues walking towards the scent. "Nine, where are you going?" Kurama ignores the murmurs going at his back as he gestures to the girl ahead.

"Maybe we can stay for a while?" she says throwing a glance at the others. Kurama pointed his tail upwards. "Yeah, I know it's night. We should make camp and—"

Growling, he points upwards for a second time until she realizes what he means.

"The rain... The scent is that way then?"

He nods and she turns to the others who stayed silent while watching their strange interaction. "I can't stay, sorry. Nine's helping me find my mom and her group. With the rain coming soon it can erase the trail so we need to go."

Tyreese is the one who steps ahead. "You're just going to follow that fox?"

"We're near. That's why we need to find it before it's too late."

"That direction leads to the highway, doesn't it? We were going towards it so we could follow it and find some stores or houses. Maybe we can go together?" says Tyreese, glancing at his group. "Well, she's just a girl," adds Sasha, looking curiously at him. "It'd be better if we helped each other for now. You said you've already been in the south. We came from the west, so some info about what's going in there would be helpful."

Donna sighs. "It's true, besides winter's close and it can be difficult to be alone at that time. What do you say, Sophia?"

She glances at him and Kurama simply shrugs. He would prefer to be around less humans but if Sophia's group is already dead then he can leave her with them and then search for Naruto by himself. He knows that's a morbid thought but right now the blonde idiot is his top priority. Sophia nods and smiles at them. "Okay then."

**A Little While Later**

"So how did you meet this fox?" Sasha asks. They've been walking for half an hour together, mostly in silence in case there are walkers near, but they've not sighted anything dangerous so they've relaxed a little bit.

"Well, I was trying to get to some houses near this lake because I hoped to find food. Some walkers surprised me and I ran, but Nine helped me. I think I remind him of his real owner." Kurama who's in front of the group suddenly stops and turns his head to growl at Sophia. The group step back, startled, as they unconsciously press their weapons close.

Sophia is unfazed as she looks at him with a frown. "Um… I look like your idiotic friend then?" Kurama nods and continues walking forward, ignoring the hushed whispers of how a fox could understand what humans were saying.

After a couple more minutes, Adam pushes his soaked hair away from his forehead. "We should search for a place to cover from the rain. We can't afford to get sick at this time."

The others start nodding, making sounds of agreement and plans for the night. Sophia looks at him and Kurama points his head towards a hill. They're really near. The scent is not strong but it's clearer than before. As if they've been more than a couple times there. It's mixed with some kind of smoke and dry plants he can really recognize thanks to the rain but it's there. He dashes forward.

"We're near," Sophia says quietly. "You said that before but how do you know that, Sophia?"

"Nine says so, let's go!" She runs behind him but he's the first to reach the highway. There are lots of those cars she told him about before and he goes to the specific one with the scent of Sophia's mother. There's no other humans nearby, but he still jumps on top of the cars and hops from car to car. He then reaches something clearly left behind from Sophia's previous group. A small cache of supplies was left on one of the cars, with this he inhaled the various smells around the cars and ground alongside the cache so that he can catch the scent of other people, memorizing them before the rain erased them completely.

"We separated near here," She explains as the rest of the group walked up to where the fox was. "There were walkers and…" She left the sentence hanging as she came across the evidence of the previous group being there. "They left me food, water, medicine, and… a blanket." With this, Kurama could see the hope regain its strength in her. He just hopes it doesn't crash and burn later on.

Donna walks up to her and extends her arms to offer her a hug but Sophia turns around after grabbing the blanket and walks to where Kurama was sniffing while the others picked up the supplies from the car. She kneels down, blanket pressed against her chest as tears begin to form in her eyes, but it doesn't stop her from looking him directly in his eyes.

"It's raining. Are we going to be able to find them?" He frowns. Kurama's not the kind to give empty promises. Or pull a Naruto and work to turn the promise into reality with every fiber of his being. It's not him so he doesn't even try. But there is something that pulls on Kurama, to try to keep up with his friends' words.

"I memorized the scent," he whispers instead, softly enough for only her to hear. It's not a promise but a fact. At least he can give her that much. And it seems to help her regain her bearings. She slowly nods and stands. This time she does accept Donna's hug as she walks back over and embraces the older woman.

**Around The Same Time, In A Small Town **

Pervy Sage had always said that Naruto has a screwed up relationship with Lady Luck. That or he was her plaything. He has good luck with chance games, gambling, and just pure dumb luck, but whenever something that's supposed to be simple comes to him, he knows it's going to turn dangerous. He doesn't even remember being in a C-rank that hasn't turned into a B or and A. Sometimes even S.

He's never believed Pervy Sage's words to be true. But waking up in a new world only to find out he was unable to move, with every muscle in his being aching while his skin screams in discomfort. Well, it makes him question his luck this time around.

There are groans and growling from all around him, but when he looks from the corner of his eyes to take a look at his surroundings as he doesn't want to attempt to move his head. The only thing he seems to know is that he's on a rooftop somewhere. With him only being able to see his skin has turned as red as those times he came out of using the fourth tail.

His connection with Kurama's chakra is much, much better so he knows it isn't his chakra. Most likely is thanks to the sun shining annoyingly bright above him. Naruto wants to stand up and see what those groans are. He makes his fingers twitch and that action is enough to make him curse and roll his eyes in pai.

So moving is a bad idea then. He sighs and closes his eyes, ignoring the sounds nearby and letting the warm sun burn his skin even more. He hopes Kurama and Sasuke are faring better. "Because this really ducks, ya know."

**Author Notes: Hey everyone! Okay to quickly summarize what happened to me, lets just say a whole lot happened throughout the year and it really put me off from writing. Enough said. However my plans are to focus on this story (meaning more constant chapters) and when I finish it, I'll focus on other stories. For now I need to get back into the groove of things. And this section of notes will also hold answers to the questions you ask me through your reviews! **

**Answers:**

**One of the most asked was this story adopted and how I'm changing it to conform to me? Well yes, I did adopt the story from an author named FlightOrFight. Reason being it was one of my favorite fanfics to read but it wasn't finished and she hadn't updated in a year. So, I wanted to finish that story but also had my own flare to it so you can see the difference. For example I'll add new sentences or paragraphs that I believe help tell the story. Not only that, I'll fix grammar mistakes or fix sentences if they don't make too much sense. Like the Sasuke fight scenes from Chapter 2, I rewrote them so that It flowed better.**

**Another question was if this story was going to be any different from the original. No, not really but like I said do add or take things away and edit them to make it fix. A fun way to look at it is if this was an alternative universe, in which some events change but the overall story is the same, and one of them reaches its end. **

**That's about it from what I remember being asked, so if you have any more questions I'll answer them in the next chapter. Probably more organized with specific people asking these questions lol. Alrighty then hope you enjoyed and keep a look out since new chapters will be posted soon! So, until next time… Until The Light Calls Again… peace.**


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